Pope Francis greets the sick

Sunday afternoon, March 12, 2017, the Holy Father made a pastoral visit to the parish of Santa Maddalena di Canossa, in the Ottavia suburb of Rome. His greeting to the sick follows:

I thank you for being here; I promise to pray for you. And I also want to say to you simply that sickness is a cross – you know it – but the cross is a seed of life, and by bearing it well one can give so much life to so many people that we don’t know; and then, in Heaven, we will know them. I thank you for bearing your sickness like this.

I am close to you and I ask you to pray for me, that the Lord may give me a spiritual life, that He may make me good, that He may make me a good priest for the service of others. I entrust myself to your prayers.